The spokesman for the Independent Trade Union Coalition, Iván Hernández Carrillo, reported that State Security deployed forces on Tuesday to thwart a meeting of several trade unionists seeking to unify the Island's three historic trade unions.

"We had a meeting organized to finalize the details," Hernández Carrillo told DIARIO DE CUBA.

The meeting, however, could not be held because several activists were arrested, others besieged in their homes and threatened, and one, at least, has apparently disappeared, said the union activist